1. Field of Invention
This invention is related to generating and displaying presentation elements of a presentation. In particular, this invention is directed to systems and methods to control a presentation system using physical objects.
2. Description of Related Art
A plethora of available software is very capable of accomplishing tasks such as word processing, data management and presentation authoring. Specifically, presentation authoring software allows a user to input data which is then translated into xe2x80x9cslides.xe2x80x9d These slides are then electronically displayed to an audience using a. presentation system during a presentation to facilitate and supplement a speaker""s presentation.
These presentation systems allow an assembled presentation to be replayed. Specifically, these presentation systems allow a user to navigate, via a graphical user interface or keyboard control, to a previous slide, a next slide or another slide within the assembled presentation or cycle through unrelated slides, i.e. skip slides, to present a more relevant slide of the presentation.
While presentation authoring software and presentation systems work well for sequential presentations, this technology can be daunting and awkward to use when a user is not capable of providing the technology with their fullest attention. Specifically, and especially in the case of a presentation using electronic media, numerous breakdowns occur frequently in the flow of a presentation at xe2x80x9chigh-techxe2x80x9d conference facilities. Generally these breakdowns are the result of a user having difficulty interacting with a graphical user interface of the presentation system. These breakdowns result in the audience watching and waiting while the presenter struggles with the presentation system. Such breakdowns may include the presenter searching through the file system of a general purpose computer that is running the presentation system to locate a desired presentation slide, the presenter struggling with the controls, such as mouse, keyboard or infrared pointer of the presentation system, and the presenter needing to navigate to the next or the previous slide, needing to skip unrelated slides, and needing to deal with the awkward stage at the end of a presentation when the presentation is over and the xe2x80x9cback stage view,xe2x80x9d i.e., the presentation system""s graphical user interface, is exposed to the audience.
These breakdowns are compounded by the fact that the audience is aware of and privy to the presenter""s stumbling with the presentation system. Furthermore, presenters unfamiliar with the presentation system are often distracted by the audience, which detracts from the amount of attention they are able to dedicate to the presentation system. This is further compounded by presentation systems that contain complex function and/or navigation controls. Specifically, one popular presentation system contains in its presentation mode a pop-up/slide-out menu that contains 29 unique functions accessed via a graphical user interface. These 29 unique functions are organized across five separate windows that the presenter uses to control a presentation.
Accordingly, systems and methods for controlling the presentation system that are more attuned to a presenter""s environment and that allow the majority of a user""s attention to be dedicated to tasks other than controlling the presentation system, especially when dealing with electronic media, are needed. Selecting material for viewing and subsequent display to an audience should be as simple as retrieving a transparency, yet sufficiently flexible, functional and dynamic to deal with the dynamic content afforded by available and anticipated presentation and multimedia systems.
This invention provides presentation control systems and methods that provide tangible support for arranging and controlling a view of electronic presentation content.
Specifically, an identification-carrying device is presented to a sensor of the presentation control system. The presentation control system associates the identification on the identification-carrying device with a presentation element, which is then presented for display.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for assisting users in presenting electronic media.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that allow a user to interact with a presentation system via a tangible identification-carrying device.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that allow users to create tangible identification-carrying devices containing mnemonics that represent presentation elements.
This invention additionally provides systems and methods that allow users to generate a presentation and the mnemonics associated with each presentation element within a presentation.
The presentation control systems and methods of this invention provide a user with a mechanism that provides ease of use and better support to the user during, for example, a presentation.
The presentation control systems and methods of this invention use physical objects, such as note cards, that contain or are provided with identifiers that represent presentation content. Mnemonics which clearly express what content, e.g., a presentation slide, is represented by the object are affixed to the physical object. Along with these mnemonics, users can incorporate additional notes or graphics which may supplement the mnemonic, such as notes describing the content for display, which further aid in the presentation.
The mnemonics incorporated on or attached to the physical object are supplemented by a readable identification device which permits the presentation control systems and methods according to this invention to interpret a user""s actions associated with the physical object. For example, a presenter may distribute a set of cards on a table or podium which contain mnemonics representing the material for presentation. The presenter can then select a card, introduce it to the sensor device of the presentation control system, and have the presentation element associated with the selected card subsequently displayed to the audience.
The presentation control systems and methods according to this invention offloads activities from the presenter""s over-taxed cognitive system to under-utilized areas, such as the peripheral ranges of the presenter""s senses. The presentation control systems and methods according to this invention enable a user to control a presentation system when very little attention can be dedicated to manipulating a particular user interface. The presentation control systems and methods according to this invention engage a wider range of human perception and enable a larger degree of low-intentional interaction than is found in current presentation systems and interfaces. The presentation control systems and methods of this invention recognize a direct physical action can be more efficient and reliable than interactions with a graphical user interface. For example, using the knob on a computer""s speaker to adjust its loudness is more easily accomplished than finding and adjusting a slider in a control window.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in or are apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.